Ian Ashbee has been dealt a blow after scans revealed the midfielder has ruptured his posterior cruciate ligament.

The City captain sustained the injury in Monday night's defeat against Aston Villa, although manager Phil Brown is refusing to put a definite time-scale on Ashbee's return until further investigation of the injury can be carried out next week.

"Ian is going to be out for a number of weeks with the injury," said Brown.

"However, further investigation is still required. We can't actually go in to have a look because of the wound that is on his knee at the moment.

"But the results of the scan say that he has got a ruptured PCL. We'll have further information when we can put a scope in there and find out a little bit more, but we won't be able to do that for another seven days."